"Celestia watch you and keep you safe,

As you travel down the path you choose.

May Luna be with you and keep you strong,

So your courage you will never lose.

Remain loyal, honest and brave,

Forget not the ones that you save

And in our hearts you will do no wrong."

Sam had been to many places, had listened to many radio stations and drank in many dingy bars. He had never seen-or heard-such a talented singer. Velvet had been crafting her song for the past hour or so, and had a part of his mind mesmerized as the larger, more professional part kept tabs on the surrounding area. Pip and Calamity were amazed as well, though Calamity rolled his eyes constantly at Velvet's constant striving for perfection, changing lyrics and tunes on a whim.

"And you've always been able to do this?" Sam asked. Velvet gave him a small smile.

"According to my cute mark, I've been able to do this all my life." Sam snorted, having already been told the whole business with cutie marks.

"What about being a medic? Saving people?" He asked turning his head toward her, "Your cutie mark say anything about that?" He looked back forward, checking his compass for any possible targets. "If I had let a magical tattoo on my ass tell me how to live my life..." He trialed off, looking forward. He stopped and held up his right hoof. Hold. Calamity took the hit, stopping and crouching to the ground.

"What ya got, Sam?" He shook his head.

"False alarm," He answered, "That thing scared the shit outta me, that's all." Calamity followed his eyes and failed to hold in a breath. It was a giant billboard, bigger than he had ever seen. Whatever paint that had been used was very hardy, as the only wear was the grime of the Wasteland that blanketed every crevice everywhere. It took Sam only a moment to realize that the face he was looking at was the same on the poster he and Pip studied after walking out of IronShod. It seemed every strand in her candy cane-looking mane was the same, and the eyes still seeming to follow him everywhere he went. This was the worst-in Sam's educated opinion-propaganda effort he had seen, an unending stare looking over the country, able to see anything and everything you were doing. He could vaguely remember the mare's name.

Pinkie Pie.

When it was first erected, when it hadn't been scorched by atomic-or whatever these ponies to destroy themselves-fire, it would've been classified by playful, like a face playing peekaboo with the entire country. But now, it was just-

"Luna-damned, fucking, creepy!" Pip let out. Sam chuckled.

"That's a way to put it-"

"Hello, Littlepip!" Sam snapped his head in the direction of the voice, finding a sprite bot floating near them. Pip screamed and scrambled away, while Calamity had to bite her tail so she didn't go running off the cliff. Sam didn't say a word, turning his back on everyone to watch out for any danger, the sun setting behind the billboard. He remembered the terrible creatures that came out at night in the American Wastelands.

"You are so lucky I can't telekinetically hurl rocks at you right now!" Pip threatened, her hostile body language lowering. Calamity seemed a little nervous around the thing, and his nervousness made Velvet nervous.

"Lil'pip-"

"Watcher, are they safe?" The sprite bot bobbed in the air, as if nodding its head.

"Yes, the wagons are on their way. Although Ditzy Doo might now be under the impression that you can hack sprite bots and send messages through them. Heh, sorry about that."

"Lil'pip," Calamity said heatedly, "Ah don't trust that thing!" Sam snorted, turning back around.

"I sometimes I think I shouldn't either, Dixie," Sam said, "Because he sent my confused ass into one of the biggest raider dens I've ever seen." A question came to his mind, and he slowly walked toward the sprite bot. "Speaking of which, why'd you do that?" Watcher was silent for a moment.

"They needed help." Sam narrowed his eyes.

"So you send a stranger-that was literally popped into existence-and watched what happened?"

"I've told you before," Watcher responded, "You needed to catch your bearings in this Wasteland, and you seemed like a stallion that would have came in anyway...Wanderer." Sam backed down, smiling under his helmet. This bot controller knew him to well.

"'Popped into existence'?" Velvet asked, "Who exactly are you?" Sam sighed.

He told them everything.

---

Well, everything he was comfortable with telling. He started with a half-truth story about how he got into the Enclave outpost, and ended with his daring rescue of his three companions. He didn't mention any of that strange voice that had tried to take control of him. That was a personal issue.

"Well, that was very interesting," Watcher said as he finished, "But I'm almost out of time!" Pip looked down to the ground, a question floating in her mind.

"Watcher, you seem to know a lot about things."

"Well, yeah," Watcher said bashfully.

"What were the Ministries?" Watcher was silent, thinking for an answer.

"Remember when I told you-both of you-that you should search for your virtue? And I told you about the greatest heroes of Equestria?"

"Yep," Sam answered. He was truly surprised he could still remember it, for that was the day he was killed.

"The Massacre at Littlehorn broke Princess Celestia's heart. After that, nearly midway through the war, Princess Celestia decided she wasn't the right pony to lead Equestria anymore. So she stepped down, abdicated her position to Her sister, Princess Luna. The war had been devastating, both abroad and at home. Equestria was in severe distress, suffering from troubles within as well as from the enemy armies. You can't imagine what it was like back then." Sam had heard from Pre-War ghouls, and had been through a simulation showing it. "Those heroes I told you about? They were six amazing ponies with true hearts and virtuous souls, whose friendship held the power to change the world." Sam resisted snorting in amusement. "Princess Celestia had always been like a mother to them. she saw them, one in particular, as her children. She loved them and wanted to protect them. So Princess Celestia shielded them from the worst of the war, finding quests for them that kept them, mostly, out of harm's reach, or at least away from the battlefields. Sending them on diplomatic missions to the griffins and the buffalo-things like that. Princess Luna met them for the first time in a much different circumstance. Princess Luna respected them and saw them as her equals. And, I really think, as her saviors. And so when Princess Luna ascended to rule Equestria and fight the war, she called Equestria's most valuable heroes to serve as her personal advisors. She called for the creation of new offices of government, one under each of them, whose job would be to take their advice and find ways to implement it."

"And those were the Ministries?" Pip asked.

"Yes." Sam humphed.

"'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'," He quoted, looking out to vast wasteland below from their vantage point. Emphasis on wasteland. "That's one of many things aligned with my world and yours."

"A shitty story moral."

---

When making the trek to California, Sam had had to cut through the Great Plains, the breadbasket of the old United States. He had seen hundreds upon thousands of destroyed homesteads, with collapsed homes, damaged by neglect, and cracked open barn silos no worse for wear than their parent barns. Only a few instances were these homesteads still in varying degrees of livable and used, though most of the time they were hideouts for escaped slaves and raiders alike. This, however, seemed to still be lived in by a down-to-earth family, with a warm, welcoming glow coming from several windows and a thin trail of smoke flowing from the chimney.

Even if the people living in this place weren't liking to strangers, the barn would be a good place to take off his armor, which he had been wearing for almost twelve hours. The body/muscle suit he constantly wore was unleashed to its true potential when coupled with the rest of the T-51b, but was prone to be overworked. And when it overworked, the wiry synthetic muscles would be in danger of violently pulling apart, slicing the wearer's body into slices of pepperoni. The kinks were close to being worked out when the war started, as Sam had found out when digging through some military base near Detroit.

'Damned Great War,' Sam thought, taking in the details of the small house, with its cracked paint stained with long lost hellfire and the ashes of innocent victims. 'What was it good for?

He disregarded three crooked planks standing in the dirt, chalking it up as neglect of a fence.

He took a glance at Pip, and her growing nervousness about the farm. He would definitely have to talk to her about that kiss. It felt...weird. A good and bad weird.

Like She was back with him.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea." Pip's nervous observation knocked him out of his trance. The house's friendly demeanor suddenly changed to one of evil. Sam felt cold slide into his bones. Like the place was unholy, as if something terrible had taken place within its boundaries.

"I'm getting bad vibes here," Sam let out, biting nervously into the bit in front of his mouth. He felt silent thuds as machinery in his minigun started activating. "Something's fucked up. Seriously fucked up." Velvet marched past the two, with Calamity following her.

"Really,you two," Velvet chided, "You shouldn't sound so jaded-" She was making to knock when the door swung open. There was nobody blocking the sea of light that fell over them. Velvet blinked at the lack of a person at the door, and looked down to see a strange looking filly.

The first thing that popped into Sam's mind was pink. Very bright pink paint plastered on her coat that almost hurt his eyes as he looked at it. If he didn't know better, he would have through that the filly was a very small and young Pinkie Pie. On her forehead was a very rough scar, along the lines of extreme lacerations he had seen on people that had had run-ins with a Super Mutant and their bumper sword. His eyes glided over her small body, confirming that she was an earth pony. He noted her bare flank; She must've not found her 'special talent' or whatever the fuck Pip had told him. That part of pony biology infuriated him.

Pip's eyes widened as she realized she painted herself pink. 'About time,' He thought, 'Withdrawal is getting worse.'

"Hello dear," Velvet said, her voice sounding very nervous, "Is your mother-"

"Oh my gosh!" The filly shouted, jumping up and squealing in happiness. She immediately fell back down, her hoof to her mouth in horror. "Oh no, You're too late! I waited for you all day, but now we're closed!" The filly's eyes welled with tears while Sam tried to figure out what 'we' meant. Velvet took a step back, frightened.

"Oh dear. I'm so sorry, young one, but we're not-"

"Of course you're not! As if we ever close!" The filly's mood turned around instantly again, giggling like a maniac. She ran out of the house, dashing past them, then spun back around with a very somber expression on her muzzle. "You really should hurry though; Nasty things haunt these fields at night!" She squealed with glee and beelined towards the silo. Sam stood in place as Velvet and Pip followed the filly.

"Ya comin', partner?" Sam was tempted to say no. This filly had the telltale signs of a tragic Wasteland back story. He had heard them all, from deaths of parents and robots and friends, to mind control powers and an entire town of cannibals, and another full of mines. It seemed that this, however, would be a strange mix of most of these components.

"This girl is crazy." Calamity snorted in amusement.

"Voicing our thoughts, Wand'r," He replied, "Migh' t'as well entertain 'er, right?" Sam nodded.

"I got the armor to negate a missile-" He tapped his armored hoof against his pauldron for emphasis, getting a series of clangs in response. "-I'm just worrying about you guys." Calamity laughed, shaking his head. He followed Sam to the silo, both going at a light trot to catch up.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Velvet called out to the silo as Sam and Calamity caught up, "But we didn't get your name?"

"Oh!" The filly exclaimed, giggling, "Of course! Sorry! I'm just so excited! You're the first visitors I've had to the museum in...oh ages!" She giggled again, unnerving Sam. "Oh, I'm Pinkie Bell!"

"Museum?" Pip asked. Memories of going across the Wasteland looking for Nuka Cola Quantum flashed in his mind. He prayed to God that this filly wasn't Sierra Petrovita's cross dimension sister.

'Pinkie Bell' opened the door of the silo door, and Sam's eyes widened under his helmet. It looked like a one ton bomb full of paint had exploded inside of the silo, which was splattered all over the walls. In a way, it reminded him of his first Behemoth kill outside of Galaxy News Radio.

"Welcome to the Pinkie Pie Museum!" Pinkie Bell exclaimed, bouncing on her hooves, "This here is the number one museum of all things Pinkie Pie in all of Equestria!"

'Oh shit, it's Sierra,' Sam's mind shouted. His pupils were shrunk in fear behind his visor, taking the whole scene in. He looked over to Calamity, who had a small, relieved smile on his face.

"Something ain't right here," He whispered in his mic, which went into Calamity's earpiece. "Stay sharp, Dixie." Calamity's smile faded.

"And what do you know, you're just in time for the tour!" Pinkie Bell exclaimed, apparently not knowing what an inside voice was, "Now where's our tour guide? She better not be sleeping again...oh wait! It's me!" She cackled again, and Sam saw her eyes go crossed for a second. It quickly melted away, and she began to drone about the story of Pinkie Pie.

Sam quickly tuned her out as she went on about the life story of the mare. From the bits and pieces he had bothered to comprehend, she had resided in Ponyville most of her life, the same town that he had first visited. He did a quick check of his inventory-just to be certain he had enough to defuse a possible situation. He had about five thousand rounds of 5mm, more than enough to keep his minigun running for a lengthy engagement. His Garand had about one thousand .30-06, but was modified to also fire .308 if he ever ran out. His Deagle had half of that in .50. He only grabbed 600 rounds of 5.56 for his R-91, and three frag grenades with ten fission batteries. And, to top it all off, three mini-nukes. He'd have to make those count, he couldn't remake them or buy more.

"-And they danced and danced all day and all night! And best of all this is the very silo where Pinkie Pie, as a young filly, invented the first party ever and got her Cutie Mark!" Sam snorted at the obvious lie, getting his eyes off of his inventory.

"I'm fairly certain that parties have existed for more than two-hundred and fifty years," He heard Velvet whisper to Pip. Pinkie Bell either didn't hear the comment or decided to ignore it.

"During the first years of the war, Pinkie Pie traveled all over, throwing parties for Equestrian troops about to head into battle! Bringing them a taste of their homeland, and more importantly, bringing them cheer and putting smiles on their faces!" She gestured wildly to pictures of Pinkie Pie adorning the wall, dancing on stage in front of thousands of ponies while wearing ridiculous outfits. "That is, when she wasn't on super secret missions for Princess Celestia!"

'To children's hospitals?' Sam thought.

"She looks a lot smaller in person," Pip commented, looking at one of the good pictures of her in the museum. She was sitting in front of a building that looking like a gingerbread house, with two ponies-a stallion and a mare, both earth ponies-beside her.

"Pinkie Pie's only regret was that she couldn't be everywhere helping all the troops all the time-Although with Dash, she could come pretty close! So of course-"

"Dash her friend or Dash the drug?" Calamity asked.

"-When Princess Luna offered to give Pinkie Pie a whole Ministry of her very own to do whatever she wanted to with it, she pounced on the chance!" The girl was on a roll, it seemed. "And the Ministry of Morale was born!" She pointed to a poster, one that looked very familiar to Sam and Pip. It was the same poster they had seen when walking out of IronShod, albeit in much better condition. Sam felt more than a little uncomfortable around the poster, like when he was around sentry bots. The feeling of always being watched, and you were about to get peppered with lasers and missiles if you made a wrong move.

Pinkie Bell twirled over to a chemistry set. It was in good condition, and wouldn't look out of place in a raider den, or a medical station of some sort across the American Wastelands.

"Pinkie Pie was always really great at cooking things. And when Princess Luna declared that the drugs that were flooding Equestria from zebra lands were harmful to the people, Pinkie Pie decided to prove that they could be good, a fun addition to any party! Working day and night, Pinkie Pie concocted a mixture of Mint-als and some of her favorite things, creating... dun dun DUN! Party Time Mint-als!" She lifted up a large tin of the pills from underneath the table, the label not as worn as it should have been. He saw Pip lick her lips.

She couldn't get that tin.

"-by that time the Ministry of Morale had transformed Pinkie Pie into an iconic figure who transcended the boundaries of one pony to become a mystical figure that easily stood alongside Princess Celestia and Princess Luna Themselves! Little colts and fillies knew that Pinkie Pie was always watching them. She saw everything they ever did. And if they were good little colts and fillies, who were nice and friendly, who did their chores and smiled and laughed and never spread seditious lies, then on their birthdays, Pinkie would bring them a wonderful party! But if they were bad little colts and fillies, Pinkie Pie would bring them a rock!" Sm looked over to the others, as if to confirm the story. A head of state becoming a strange knockoff of Santa Claus? By the look of their faces, this was as new to them as it was to him.

He was about to say something when he saw Pinkie Bell stop, taking in a big breath and holding still. She stayed in that position for a few seconds before sighing.

"I'm sorry, I thought I felt an impromptu musical number coming on."

"What the actual fuck...?" Sam muttered under his breath, Pinkie not able to hear.

"Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, how Pinkie Pie brings parties!" It seemed it wouldn't have fazed her either.

"Brings?" Velvet asked, "Dear, you do know that Pinkie Pie is dead, don't you?"

"Oh, she's physically dead!" Pinkie Bell retorted, not skipping a beat, "But her spirit lives on inside all of us!" Velvet laughed quietly, as if accepting the filly's mental insanity. Sam couldn't, not after how many times he'd seen stuff like this.

"I think Pinkie Pie's spirit has a stalker," Pip whispered. Sam snorted.

"She's forming a cult, not stalking," Sam shot back, shaking his head. Pip looked up to him, frowning.

He tuned out the rest of the tour, instead thinking of a way to solve his situation. He had to get him and his friends out of his crazy filly's nightmare, and maybe save her from it. That was a secondary objective, however; He took care of his own first in these kinds of situations. The second was making sure Pip did not get ahold of that tin. He was afraid of her, he had seen good people shrivel away with drug problems and he refused to have her be added to that list.

"It turns out, I have the only copy of the recipe for Party-Time Mint-als!" That second objective just got a lot harder. "And I'd be willing to share it with you if you can bring me the one piece of my Pinkie Pie Museum collection that I'm missing! A limited edition Pinkie Pie magical statuette!"

"Bring it here, and I'll throw the party to end all parties!"

---

"I shouldn't have made fun," Velvet said as she paced. Sam snorted, glancing to see her pacing on the rough wooden boards that made of the floor of the small bedroom that Pinkie Bell 'insisted' they stayed in for the night. He took off his helmet, flicking his ears to relive some of the pain in them, and set it on the ground. Pip stared at it. He grunted and hit a small button on his chest armor, which was usually covered by his pauldrons. The front of the armor detached and fell to the floor with a loud thud. It cracked the floorboards underneath it.

Calamity jumped from his position on the bed, his ear to the wall. He glared at Sam, who shrugged.

"It's ten pounds of composite, what do ya expect?" He asked. Calamity shook his head and kept at his job of listening for the painted pink filly. Shook smirked at took off his greaves with flashes of magic, all four of the armor pieces hissing as the airtight seal was broken and falling to the ground with small thuds. He threw them all in his bag and pulled out his normal outfit at the same time.

"That poor filly," Velvet said, "She's so terribly sad."

"Sad?" Calamity whinnied, taking his ear off of Were ya listenin' t' the same little pink-painted ball o' Dash tha' was?" He remembered his confusion. "The drug." Velvet stopped pacing, her head hung low.

"Oh yes. And that poor girl is NOT happy, not at all." She sighed. "She's full of pain. Something horrible must have happened to her." Sam slipped on his camo jacket, putting his duster on short after.

"I've seen something like this happen before," Sam said, "Sierra Petrovita. Her parents were killed when her homestead was raided by slavers when she was young, and she was put in chains for four years." Sam's eyes glassed over as he stared into space, remembering the night when Sierra broke down when he completed his job for her. "She was a pleasure slave, and when she was freed by some guy that bought slaves their freedom, her mind was already broken. Shattered like a glass bottle." He nodded to the silo. "She started a Nuka Cola museum, not unlike this Pinkie Pie shrine." Velvet shivered as Sam blinked, getting his mind out of his memories. "I'll bet my Deagle that her family was murdered in front of her, and she was left the place to do as she pleased. Lie starting a museum dedicated to Pinkie Pie." Calamity's head perked up at the stakes.

"Yer on!" He exclaimed. Sam looked over to him, an eyebrow raised. He grinned when he saw he wasn't kidding. Both Wastelanders spit on their hooves and shook.

"That's one morbid bet," Velvet said in a disapproving tone of voice.

"Welcome to the Wastes, Stable Dweller," Sam replied, almost harshly, as he dropped his hoof and Calamity jumped back to the bed. Velvet recoiled, both at the tone of his voice and the look in his eye.

"She's gone," Calamity said a few moments after he reassumed position, "An' if ya don't want somethin' horrible t' happen t' us, Ah suggest we be leavin' too." He trotted to the door and pulled on the handle. The door didn't move. He pulled harder, but the door didn't budge. It was locked.

"Maybe she's just trying to us safe from the 'nasty things' that haunt the fields at night?" Pip asked, trying to lift the spirits of everyone. It didn't work. Velvet went up to the door and tired to push it open.

"Doesn't matter," She whinnied, "We're leaving. I will not be locked in a cage." Sam backed up to the windows, preparing to ram the door. He was about to charge when Calamity stopped him.

"Ya know how much noise tha'll make?" He asked. Sam relaxed his muscles and stood straight up, looking down at the ground. Pip shushed them both, gaining their attention. She simply pointed a hoof outside. A crack of dimly pulsing, colored light appeared as the filly holding them hostage pushed open the door of the barn just enough to slide through, then pushed it shut behind her.

Calamity and Sam both waited, quiet and still, until the door of the farmhouse opened, casting a rectangle of light across the ground with Pinkie Bell's silhouette. The moment the door closed Sam quickly charged a spell in his horn and released it.

A blinding flash filled the room just after a beam of silver light left the tip of his horn, with only a small pop being emitted. The moment after the flash, the window pane was gone, the ash pile that trickled down form the frame all that was left.

The group went quickly back down to the ground, with two winged ponies that carried the non-winged ones down. They crept across the farm, sticking to the shadows when necessary. The only times were when they heard a noise coming from the farmhouse. Sam took point, with Pip bringing up the rear, as they hugged the wall of the barn.

There was a loud pop form above them. Sam's heart stopped and he crouched against the wall, rifle pointing upwards. He felt pieces of glass rain down on his body, his thick leather outer wear protecting him. He looked up, and saw the useless base of a lightbulb. He sighed in relief, a small smile on his face. He looked back to his group, who he could barely see in the dark. He nodded forward, and they continued.

Five minutes later, they were resting on the same hill they came down earlier. Sam saw the view of the homestead without the filters of his power helmet, and the place looked-felt-more sinister than before.

"Y'all good?" Calamity asked, "Velvet?"

"Been better," She muttered, "Though I wish we could've stayed and helped that poor little filly."

"Sam?"

"I wanna get out of here," He said, "That place still feels...wrong."

"Pip?" There was no answer. "Pip?" Sam looked around them, panic rising in his body. He looked back to the homestead, centering on the barn. His eyebrows furrowed, and he grit his teeth in frustration.

'She's getting that recipe!'

---

Sam rose in the air, his wings silent as they flapped. He landed quietly on the roof of the barn, almost slipping off from excess rainwater from the downpours the day before.

Before he decided to make his own entrance, he noticed a section of the white-faded roof covered by a black tarp. He slowly took it off with his magic, and found a jagged hole big enough for him to squeeze into. He grimaced, noting a small two-seated carriage on the hay loft below. He could see a skeleton laying underneath it where the driver could be situated, two of its ribs broken by the wooden beams on top of it.

Sam jumped down and landed like a cat beside the long rotted corpse, making sure not to trod on it. He hurried down the loft and glided down to the ground floor. He saw Pip standing in front of a heavy safe, looking at the prize inside it.

"It's rude," He said, making Pip freeze up, "To take something that doesn't belong to you." She stayed still, as if hoping that his vision was based on movement. He walked up to the safe beside her, pushing her away to see what was inside.

"Sorry," She said, "I wasn't thinking-"

"No shit?" Sam interrupted, glancing behind him, "You were blatantly stealing, something you know isn't right, from a ten-year old." She looked down, averting eye contact. Sam felt like he was disciplining a child. "Yeah, feel ashamed." He shook his head, grumbling insults under his breath. He looked back inside, seeing only a holotape of some sort.

'Whatever they call them here,' He thought bitterly, popping open his holoplayer with a smack. He slid the tape in and waited for the different systems to interact, merge and work. Within a moment, the recording started. The voice was feminine and young, a little older than Pinkie Bell.

Peartree,

The raiders came back yesterday. They didn't take kindly to daddy running them off last week with his shotgun, so this time they came in force. Mama made us hide in the upstairs bedroom and cast a spell over us to keep us from being seen. She made us promise to be quiet and still. But Silver Bell...

My little sister has always been able to make beautiful music, like the tinkling of dozens of magical bells. We all adore it. But Silver Bell, sometimes when she's frightened or worried, the spell happens all on its own. She didn't mean to. It was an accident.

The raiders killed mama and daddy. They killed them really slow and brutal. And they made us watch. It was...

I buried them out by the end of the east field. Put up a couple planks as tombstones. I hate that they won't last long, but I can't carve their names into rocks. And mama and daddy deserve to have their names over their graves.

Silver Bell has nightmares every night. Honestly, I do most nights too. And during the days she just curls up silent-like. Never crying. Never smiling. I can't even get her to eat. I don't know what to do.

I'm going to try taking her to Tenpony Tower. I've heard there's a buck up there who takes in orphans. It's a long walk, and so I'm headed up to gather provisions from the neighbors. If I'm not back when you get here, please load up the wagon. I know I can't ask you to come with us; you have your own folks to take care of. But I would really appreciate it if you could hang around so I could say goodbye.

You're the best buckfriend I could have asked for.

Love, Memory."

Pip stood silent as the voice cut out, while Sam staggered. He leaned on the safe, tears in his eyes.

"Oh God," He whispered, "Those planks..."

"You shouldn't have listened to that!" An angry little voice said behind them. They turned and saw Silver Bell standing there, a fiery expression on her face with tears in her eyes. Sam's eyes widened as they fell back on the scar on her forehead. She cut off her own horn out of guilt.

"Silver Bell," Sam said softly, walking slowly toward her, "I...I'm so sorry."

"It's. Not. Yours." She sniffled, tears leaking out of her eyes. "You want it so much? Keep it!"

"You're not like Pinkie Pie," Another voice said behind them all. It was Velvet, her voice slow and saddened. "You are, if anything, the opposite of Pinkie Pie." Silver started to shake.

"That's not true!" She shouted, her words full of hate.

"You don't bring happiness. When I look at you, all I feel is sad." Sam sniffed and stood straight once more. "If Pinkie Pie were to meet you, she wouldn't throw a party..."

"Yes she would!" Velvet stopped her slow advance, thinking.

"Maybe she would," She said after a moment, "But she wouldn't throw a party because she wanted to have fun with you. She would throw a party because she wanted to help you. Because you would make her very sad."

"W-w-what do y-you know?"

"I know that laughter, real laughter, isn't forced. It isn't something you paint on to hide how you are truly feeling." Silver Bell vibrated faster as Velvet neared her, torn between turning into a tornado of tiny hooves or curling up and crying. "I know that you are very badly hurt inside, and it's not the sort of hurt that can be fixed with a party. Or healed by my horn."

"What happened to your parents wasn't your fault, what happened to your sister wasn't your fault..." Sam closed his eyes and turned his head away. Behind Velvet, Calamity could see a lone tear fall from his eyes.

He wondered but Memory's last moments were like. Did she ever get to their neighbor's, who were probably a day's walk from where they were standing? Was she taken down by a passing animal, or a lone raider that lingered behind for so long?

"YES! IT! WAS!" Silver Bell fell o her knees, sobbing hard. Velvet dropped down with her, wrapping her foreleg around her body and putting her chin on her head. Silver Bell wrapped her legs around her neck and almost strangled her, as if if she let go she would die. She was given a shoulder to cry on, something she had needed for months.

Sam looked away from the heartbreaking scene and looked to the ceiling, seeing a small opening to look at the night sky. He saw a few stars twinkling like they always did, oblivious to the horrors of the earth they were looking down upon.

'Why, God?' Sam prayed, 'Why do you stand by and watch?'

'Why can't there be a happy ending?'

---

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Power Endurance-Experience with power armor and its muscle suit has told you how to coax it to work better for longer. Limit in Power Armor is increased 10%, and Unarmed damage with Power Armor on is increased 5%.

---

Me actually meeting a deadline? Weird.